Wavering Paths
by The Wee Free Bottlemen
Summary: After Daisy Wells and her father decide to swap their busy lives in London for a quiet, more peaceful life in a village called Sotoba in Japan, Daisy has to learn to adjust to both the culture and the alienation she feels towards the villagers. After seven months of living there, Daisy will have to make a tough decision as to who is friend and who is foe. T for now, it might change


Village life and city life are two different things. One is peaceful and the other is lively. One can make simple citations like that. Both lives are parallel. You cannot live village life in the city and vice versa. Both lives have rules you must play by.

Act like a city dweller in a village, you'll stick out like a sore thumb.

Act like a villager in a city, no one will care unless you kick up a fuss about the city being too crowded. Even then, not many people will care.

However, when a city dweller does end up in the village, it's almost like you're given a pardon for a certain amount of time until the villagers expect you to become one of them.

I grew up on the outskirts of London, just a 10 minute train journey away. I went to school in London and hung out at the weekend in London. The rush of city life is something that I've grown up with. A way of life I had gotten used to, now imagine having that rush swapped for the hush of a village. Especially when the language of the village isn't your first language.

My dad decided upon the move after my mum walked out.

My dad writes children's books, well, he wrote children's books. After my mum walked out, he went through a period of writing up ideas, dropping them, picking them up again before dropping everything all together. But then my aunt and uncle gave him an idea. If he sold the house, and moved to the village where they lived to see what ideas he could get, then maybe his creativity would come back.

They said that a clean break would be good for both of us.

He was reluctant at first. I had exams fast approaching and we'd have to leave friends and family behind, but I could see that the toxic air of the city was becoming too much for him and maybe a clean break would do both of us a deal of good.

My dad had spent eighteen years of his life in Tokyo as my grandfather had a business based in Tokyo, so my dad was pretty fluent. He taught me everything he knew of the language and I picked the rest up on my own until I was more or less fluent.

The move was stressful. Our Old English Sheep dog, Hodor, had to have several vaccinations and blood tests before moving and our furniture was set to come seven or eight weeks after we moved. Thankfully after landing in Japan, we picked up two futons to sleep on until our furniture came.

However, even with the stress of moving, I am having to do a load of work for school. Even though it was the summer holidays, I had to catch up and get to the level that everyone else was at. The application into the school itself was a pain in the backside as I had to contact them in the middle of the night and send over translated school reports and health certificates from my doctor. I would have to drop the GCSE options that I was taking and pick up useless topics like: Home Economics, Art, and PE; and subjects like Religious Studies, Government and Politics, and Drama aren't subjects that are on the curriculum. But even with those minor issues, there was something exciting about learning in a different environment to one that I am used to.

I was in the backseat of the car as Hodor isn't the best on car journeys, so I let him snuggle into me. His shaggy white fur tickled my nose and his wet nose was on my arm. Dad was in the front listening to the local radio station and would occasionally turn around to look at me as I stared out of the window.

I had my earphones plugged in as I watched the countryside go past. After we got off the main road, it was rare to see a car, but after two hours after turning off the main road, we were starting to drive through wooded area.

The woodland my dad was driving through looked so beautiful, so mysterious. It was like something you would find in Middle Earth or any other fantasy novel. The leaves on the trees were a vivid green that I had not seen on any tree before. Even if I could only get glimpses of the leaf, that particular colour was able to stick itself to my mind. It was that vivid green that reminded me how far from home I truly was.

I took one last glance outside the window before hurriedly looking away in order to stop myself from getting upset.

I nuzzled into Hodor and gave him a quick kiss on his shaggy head.

After maybe five minutes or so, we were out of the woods and heading towards the village. As much as I wanted to look outside and take a good look at everything, I knew that the sudden wave of homesickness would hit me and turn me into a blubbering mess, which would in turn, upset my dad and would then make me feel guilty for making him so upset and then there will be a cycle of uncontrollable sobbing which would probably drown the village in my dad's and mine salty tears.

I could feel the car make some sharp turns which could only mean one thing, we were getting close.

The anticipation made my legs start to shake and I could feel myself start to wriggle in my seat. Hodor must have felt my anticipation as he started to fidget a bit.

It wasn't long until I felt the car slow down as it turned in to a driveway and stopped completely.

I pulled my earphones out and shoved them into my pocket before unbuckling my seatbelt.

"Bloody hell, my legs need a stretch," my dad muttered as he opened the door.

Hodor noticed that we had stopped and started crying to get out. He pawed at the door with his giant paw and continued howling.

"Alright, Hodor," I said as I opened my door and swung out of the car before standing out of the way as Hodor charged out of the car.

I turned and looked at the house.

It was so pretty. It was a bungalow that looked like a traditional Japanese house in the sense that it had the typical layered roof look and was dark brown in colour. My breath seemed clogged in my throat as I realised that this was my new home.

I was standing in the middle of the driveway, staring at the house in awe when my dad's voice cut me off.

"Come on, poppet. You need to see inside," my dad said in my ear as he walked over to the door and unlocked it before walking in.

"Coming," I replied as I started walking towards the house.

As I stepped in, I could see that my dad had taken his shoes off before there was a larger platform that was the main house.

I slipped my white pumps off my feet, leaving me in my bright pink knee high socks.

I stepped up onto the laminated floor and started looking around.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by the sight of the open plan kitchen and dining area on my right and to my left was what I could assume to be the living room. It was airy and pretty spacy and the colour of the wooden floor was a light brown which added to the airiness of the room.

I carefully treaded past the kitchen area towards the hallway where I was greeted by three doorways.

I turned left and was greeted with an airy white room. It wasn't big but it wasn't small either. I assumed that this was going to be my room as the other room was my dad's which meant the other door was the door to the bathroom.

I decided to go and get my things from the car. I walked out of my room and walked down the hallway and stepped down before pulling on my pumps and walking out to the car.

As I walked towards the car, I noticed a middle aged couple peer from the open gate to the driveway, muttering to each other. I furrowed my brows curiously as I walked over to the car. Once they noticed that I had seen them, they stopped talking to each other and gave me a quick nervous wave before walking off.

Oh.

I thought they were going to talk to me or something. But I guess they just wanted to catch a quick glance at their new neighbours before getting away as quickly as possible so that they could observe us at a distance.

I sighed before walking over to the car and opening the boot and pulling out my suitcase.

I hauled it over to the house and kicked off my shoes (again) before lugging my suitcase down the corridor and into my room. I placed it down by the door to my wardrobe before remembering to get my futon.

I sighed before walking back out of my room, down the corridor, to the car and into the boot again where I nabbed my white, folded futon and lemon yellow pillow and pulled them out of the boot. This time, as I walked into the house, I decided to screw taking off my shoes and take them off after I take my futon to my room.

As soon as I got to my room, I walked over to the far side and dumped the futon and pillow on the floor. I then unfolded the futon and put the pillow down.

I took in my handy work.

Suddenly, the five hour straight car journey with no bathroom breaks hit me and all the excitement and adrenalin had slowly started to subside and the need to relieve myself caused my bladder to ache.

I quickly dashed out of my room to the middle door and turned the handle to find it thankfully wasn't occupied. I quickly walked in and locked the door.

To my amazement, the toilet wasn't in the same room as the shower and bath, but in a separate room entirely. I made a mad dash to the toilet and quickly pulled down my underwear and relieved myself.

As soon as I was finished, I noticed that there was a control panel hovering next to me. I noticed a button that had a cloud-like symbol with what looked like water droplets coming from it. Foolishly, I pressed it.

Suddenly, I heard a strange gurgling sound before I felt a stream of moderately pressured water shoot upwards, causing me to scream and grab my posterior protectively.

"Fuck, shit, bloody, bollocks!" I yelped incoherently

I heard footsteps outside the room.

"Is everything alright?" my dad asked in a concerned voice

It took me a moment to process what had just happened.

"Why does the toilet spit water?" I yelped

I could hear the chuckle of my dad outside the room.

"I forgot to tell you the toilet did that. Sorry, love," he said through chuckles

I quickly found the flush button and flushed the toilet before washing my hands and walking into my room.

I sat on the futon and collected my thoughts as I noticed Hodor come in and settle down beside me.

I guess that was when the realisation of how everything in my life was going to change. How this one move would change the course of my life and how far from home I truly was.

I cuddled into Hodor's soft fur and sighed whilst staring at the bright white walls. A blank canvas that needed some colour and feeling to it.

Just not yet.


End file.
